Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways
DEVELOPMENT OF PANDU PORT AS HUB OF  SHIPPING IN NORTH EAST
Pandu  is the most important location on National Waterways   and accordingly Government established a Multi-Modal river port at Pandu. Details are at Annex-I.
Government has approved a project for development of NW-2 at a cost of Rs. 461 cr during 2020-21 to 2024-25. Establishment of a ship repair facility at Pandu at a cost of Rs. 72.6 cr is one of the component of the project. Development of Ship repair facility at Pandu is beneficial since North Eastern Region  does not have any vessel repair facility with dry docking. At present, the vessels in the NER are taken to Kolkata through Bangladesh for dry dock repair.
Initiative taken by the Government to encourage entrepreneurs/cargo operators to boost inland navigation in the North East are detailed at Annex-2.
Annex.-1
Details of Multi-Modal Terminal at Pandu  on NW-2 
- Pandu  is the most important location on NW-2 for development of a multimodal river port. A master plan was therefore prepared for phased development of terminal at Pandu and development was carried out accordingly. A low-level jetty at a cost of 40.02 crores was made operational in 2009. A high level jetty at a cost of 43.89 crores was also made operational during 2014-15 for round the year operation with mechanical handing facility including containers.
- A broad gauge railway siding connecting Pandu port to Kamakhya railway station  has been constructed through NF Railway at a cost of 16.46 crore and opened for commercial operation by NF Railway in 2013. IWAI has signed the Agreement with NF Railway for using the BG Siding for movement of Cargo by third party.
- Availability of infrastructure facilities -
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Location
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Jetty/ Terminal
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Storage facility
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Equipment
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Other Facilities
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Pandu, Guwahati
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Low level RCC jetty – 
High level RCC jetty – 
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2 nos. Transit Sheds ,
Open storage area: 553.90 sq. m
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Two hydraulic shore cranes of 20 MT and 75 MT capacity,
One Weigh bridge: 100 MT capacity
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A Railway Broad Gauge  siding
Customs Notified
Annex.-2
Initiatives taken by the Government to encourage entrepreneurs/cargo operators to boost inland navigation in the North East.
i. Fairway development works:To improve the connectivity between NW-1 and NW-2/NW-16 via the Indo Bangladesh protocol route, the critical and shallow stretches between Sirajganj and Daikhowa on protocol route No1 & 2 and Ashuganj and Zakiganj on protocol rote no 3 &4in Bangladesh are being jointly developed by India and Bangladesh for round the year navigability . Similarly, fairway development works are being carried out on NW-97 in Sunderbans to allow smooth navigation of vessels on the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route.
ii. Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax Service Commenced in National Waterway-2
The Operation of Ro-Ro / Ro-Pax vessels inaugurated by Hon’ble Prime Minster during February 2021 for the following routes:
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Vessel Name
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Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax Service between
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Date of Inauguration by Hon'ble Prime Minister
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MV Rani Gaidinliu& MV
Sachin Dev Barman
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Neamati and Kamalabari
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18.02.2021
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MV JFR Jacob
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Guwahati and NorthGuwahati
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18.02.2021
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MV Bob Khathing
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Dhubri and Fakirganj 
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18.02.2021
iii. Revision of Levy & Collection of Fees: Taking ahead the vision of the Government of India to promote Inland Waterways as a supplementary mode of transport, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has considered waiver of waterway user charges initially for a period of three years.
iv. Enhanced regional trade using IWT mode:
a. Addition of new Ports of Call and routes in India and Bangladesh under PIWT&T: With 7 new ports of call in addition to existing 6 on each side along with addition/ extension of 2 waterway routes in addition to existing 8 routes under PIWT&T between India and Bangladesh, the accessibility of IWT mode for trade between India and Bangladesh is expected to increase and result in growth of traffic on NWs.
b. Trade between Bhutan and Bangladesh: Stone exporters from Bhutan have identified Inland waterways as an alternate mode of transportation considering the benefits associated with waterways mode such as lower transportation cost, larger shipment size compared to road, avoiding congestion on land routes etc. The first movement under supervision of IWAI was successfully executed in July 2019. This trade using the IWT mode is expected to continue and reach a significant scale in the coming years.
v. Standard Operating Procedures  for facilitating the Stakeholders to use Inland Water Transport and access the various information related to National Waterways
The list of Standard Operating Procedures  for various National Waterways which are available at IWAI website is as given below:
a. Standard Operating Procedures  of the Agreement on the use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports for movement of goods to and from India between the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Government of Republic of India.
b. Standard Operating Procedures  of MoU on Passenger and Cruise Services on the Coastal and Protocol Route between the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Government of Republic of India.
c. Standard Operating Procedures  for the MoU on use of Inland Waterways for Transportation of Bilateral Trade and Transit cargoes between the Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Government of Republic of India.
d. Standard Operating Procedures  for the Movement of Vessels on Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade  to contain the spread of COVID19.
e. Standard Operating Procedures  and Check List for Ro-Ro / Ro-Pax vessel operations on National Waterways.
f. Standard Operating Procedures  for Car-D Portal.
vi. Stakeholder consultations: IWAI carried out stakeholder consultations at six different locations  in FY-20 and 9 conference-cum-webinars during FY-21. These interactions helped in promoting waterways as a mode of transportation and understanding expectations and feedback of stakeholders. IWAI is undertaking targeted initiatives to address the expectation and feedback received to further enhance traffic on NWs.
This information was given by the Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.